More bad news for Colorado marijuana

[notmeofficer]

Doesn't sound like MJ is all that good for the world,,,,





PRESS RELEASE
September 15, 2015





REPORT: MARIJUANA COMMERCIALIZATION FAILING IN COLORADO



Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (RMHIDTA) report shows significant increases in traffic fatalities, child poison control exposures, hospitalizations, youth use, amongst other alarming data, detailing how Colorado's experiment with retail marijuana regulation is a public health and safety failure.



DENVER, CO - The Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (RMHIDTA) has released its updated report, The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado, The Impact, Volume 3,which outlines the most alarming data to date, demonstrating how Colorado marijuana legalization policies have harmed public safety and health.



Highlights from the report show serious changes since 2014, when retail marijuana businesses began operating in Colorado, including:



· Traffic deaths: A 32 percent increase in marijuana-related traffic deaths in just one year from 2013



· Driving under the influence: Toxicology reports with positive marijuana results of active THC for primarily driving under the influence have increased 45 percent



· Marijuana use by children: Colorado youth usage (ages 12 to 17) ranks 56 percent higher than the national average



· ER visits: A 29 percent increase in the number of marijuana-related emergency room visits



· Hospitalizations: A 38 percent increase in the number of marijuana-related hospitalizations



· Poison control: Marijuana-only related exposures increased 72 percent in only one year



· More marijuana trafficking: The yearly average interdiction seizures of Colorado marijuana increased another 34 percent



"This report serves as a wake-up call for all Coloradans," said Bob Doyle, chair of Colorado SAM. "It is time to stop yielding to Big Marijuana special interests and put health and safety ahead of marijuana commercialization."



"For too long, the marijuana industry has been telling Americans that 'everything's fine' in Colorado. This data-driven report tells a very different story," said Kevin Sabet, President of SAM and an assistant professor at the University of Florida.



Jo McGuire, co-chair of Colorado SAM added, "We are prepared to engage Colorado community members in conversations that will send strong messages to our state leaders that these outcomes are unacceptable and legalization clearly does not work."



In August 2015, poll results showed that popularity for marijuana legalization amongst Coloradans is losing support over concerns of traffic problems, youth usage, child exposures and the proliferation of edible products.

[Warren44]

Nice of you to post a bogus article without referring to the actual link or where it is actually from. Yet somehow the states sales are so high and the taxes are so abundant the state is actually making more money than expected

[SVTLightning]

lol you post some funny stuff NMO!


https://reason.com/blog/2014/08/15/d...l-to-show-that

Emergency Room Visits. "From 2011 to 2013," the report says, "there was a 57 percent increase in emergency room visits related to marijuana." Furthermore, "The percent of all hospitalizations that were marijuana related increased 91 percent from 2008 to 2013." Or to put it another way, the share of "hospitalizations that were marijuana related" rose from 0.96 percent in 2008 to 1.74 percent in 2013, while the share of emergency room visits that were "related to marijuana" rose from 0.62 percent in 2011 to 0.87 percent in 2013. Judging from these figures, it does not seem like hospitals are being overrun with marijuana-related cases. But even those tiny numbers exaggerate the scope of the problem, as revealed by these notes:

INCREASES [in E.R. visits] OBSERVED OVER THESE THREE YEARS MAY BE DUE PARTLY, OR COMPLETELY, TO INCREASES IN REPORTING BY EMERGENCY ROOMS.
"MARIJUANA-RELATED" IS ALSO REFERRED TO AS "MARIJUANA MENTIONS." THIS MEANS THE DATA COULD BE OBTAINED FROM LAB TESTS, SELF-ADMITTED OR SOME OTHER FORM OF VALIDATION BY THE PHYSICIAN. THAT DOES NOT NECESSARILY IMPLY MARIJUANA WAS THE CAUSE OF THE EMERGENCY ADMISSION OR HOSPITALIZATION.

Again, don't make the rookie mistake of assuming that "marijuana-related" incidents are related to marijuana.


Marijuana-Related Exposures. OK, these actually do involve marijuana—specifically, marijuana accidentally ingested by little kids (5 or younger). There was a "268 percent increase" in such cases in the three years after 2009, compared to the three years before then. In less impressive raw numbers, that's an increase from about five to about 18 kids a year in the entire state, which suggests that adults are generally being pretty careful about keeping their marijuana edibles away from children.

[Warren44]

People be making rookie mistakes eating too many edibles and overdosing and getting all paranoid thinking they are going to die, having panick attacks and going to the ER for help. THats what thats all about! lol

[dpm1]

Even if Marijuana caused an individual harm so what? SO doesn't booze, should we ban booze?

[Stoke]

Where's the link to this article? Did the OP neglect to share it because it's a pile of dog-sh*t website?

[chadgates]

Originally Posted by Warren44

People be making rookie mistakes eating too many edibles and overdosing and getting all paranoid thinking they are going to die, having panick attacks and going to the ER for help. THats what thats all about! lol

EXACTLY.

I will state with a fairly high level of certainty that the vast majority, if not all of, the "ER visits" are unwarranted.

Secondly, I can smoke all weekend long and then have a traffic accident Tuesday afternoon and test positive. It is in no way indicative that I was driving under the influence. That is very sketchy data.

You might scare some uninformed people who don't know any better, but most people know that the gov't has a pretty long track record of lying to the people when it comes to marijuana.

Here's a great blast from the past:

[no1brownsfan]

More Reefer Madness hyperbole I see.

[jwiley]

Violent crime is down, tax revenue is through the roof, and even the harshest marijuana critics that are in Colorado are admitting that the problems they expected are much less then they thought they would be, but some random website makes up stats and people want to believe them.

By the way one thing to be very careful about is mentioning higher use in Colorado than elsewhere, it should not take a rocket scientist to figure out that when something is more socially acceptable than more people will admit to doing it, does not mean actual use is higher then elsewhere though.

[jimj]

Originally Posted by dpm1

Even if Marijuana caused an individual harm so what? SO doesn't booze, should we ban booze?

Well then, following this argument we should allow heroin,cocaine,meth etc,etc,etc right?
Here's the thing, why add more issues when we've already got plenty going on with Alcohol and prescription drug abuse?

I've personally seen the pitfalls of MJ use/abuse both with my friends AND myself (look up pot filled life in the 60's/70's where pot was weaker than it is today) so you will never,ever convince me that MJ is just a harmless plant, it is NOT harmless.

I also agree with the idea that Cannabinoids have many medicinal uses and should be treated as a C-2 narcotic for pain relief and as a seizure medication among other (presently unknown) medical uses.

I like to think I'm a reasonable person, I don't believe that any drug or plant that has been proven to offer relief of health conditions such as pain and such, especially children's issues like severe seizures should be denied to those afflicted just because of ancient thinking. Everyone has the human right to exist with as much of a normal life as possible and if something is available that is less harsh to the human body or more effective that man made drugs then let's make it available.